Preliminary Exercise 3: Mise en Scene Codes and Genre Conventions Bubble Organizer

What is Mise en Scene?
Mise en Scene is the essence of film making. Essentially the placement of stage and where things go. Mise en Scene film makers focus on storytelling through a single shot. Sound, music, set design, costume, lighting, etc. all go into mise en scene.

The objective of this assignment was to construct a bubble diagram in order to identify common knowledge on movie and television viewing experience. We were to illustrate mise en scene codes for a particular genre, in which I chose horror.

The diagram was made up of the following:
-Color: colors in film illicit certain emotions from the audience and can be encoded symbolics meanings illustrated by film maker.
-Acting: refers to the art of human representation or interpretation of a character within a film.
-Composition: refers to the way elements of a scene are arranged in relation to each other in a camera frame.
-Setting: refers to the time and/ or place that the narrative occurs, whether indoors or outdoors.
-Costumes: clothes that actors wear.
-Hair and Makeup: used to convey a character's status or personality.
-Set design: the creation of the physical space in which the action of a performed event takes place. It also includes the décor and props used to support genre.
-Lighting: lighting setup guides the eye to a specific actor, prop, or part of a scene.

Setting

-Realistic and unrealistic.

-From present time all the way back to olden times.

-Can be indoors or outdoors, or both.

-Eerie landscapes such as an old house, a forest, a cramped hallway, and abandoned buildings.

Hair & Makeup

-Hair and makeup for victims is usually just normal, nothing out of the blue. Killers can have crazy hair and the face paint to get viewers more scared.

Lighting

-Lighting in horror movies tend to stay within the same zone. Flashing lights means danger or that one is being chased. Red lighting can be used to show death or accentuate blood. The most general lighting for horror movies and media is dark lighting. Dark lighting creates an eerie setting and adds suspense.

Composition

-Victims run from killers/monster due to being chased or scared. Victims may stay close to each other for a higher chance of survival.

Costumes

-Victims usually wear casual or normal clothing.

-Killers usually wear masks to cover their face or makeup. This goes along with an off-setting costume

Set Design: Decor & Props

-Decoration tends to be old-fashioned or broken to give a creepy vibe. Props are mostly weapons carried by the killer like chainsaws, knives and machetes.

Acting

-Normal, usually weird or innocent characters, tend to be the main lead.

-Facial expressions consist of screaming, worried, crying faces and other fearful expressions.

-Body language is usually visibly uncomfortable or scared. Examples would be twitching, shaking and running away. In the case the victim gets body language can indicate pain.

Color

-Red= Danger, blood, violence

-Black= Dark, hopeless, tension

What I learned:

From this assignment I learned about mise en scene codes, genre and iconography conventions, and how they come together to create meaning to audiences. This assignment allowed me to be creative and use shapes and color and have fun.